RON PAULINO

4/21/81; NDFA '97; Dominican Republic
R/R; 6-3, 190

Level
BA
OBP
SA
AB
2B
3B
HR
BB
K
SB
CS
1999 R
.253
.319
.410
83
2
4
1
8
19
1
2
2000 A
.289
.354
.415
301
16
2
6
27
71
3
2
2001 A+
.290
.353
.392
352
16
1
6
36
76
4
1
2002 A+
.262
.321
.412
442
26
2
12
39
87
2
1
2003 AA
.226
.283
.390
159
6
1
6
12
35
0
2
2003 A+
.235
.308
.309
81
3
0
1
8
8
1
0
2004 AA
.285
.344
.480
369
23
2
15
32
62
3
2
2005 NL
.500
.600
.500
4
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
2005 AAA
.315
.372
.538
273
18
2
13
26
48
3
0
2005 AA
.292
.350
.435
168
6
0
6
15
30
3
0
2006 NL
.310
.360
.394
442
19
0
6
34
79
0
0
2006 AAA
.241
.313
.345
29
3
0
0
3
8
1
0
2007 NL
.263
.314
.389
457
25
0
11
33
79
2
2
2008 NL
.212
.277
.305
118
5
0
2
11
24
0
0
2008 AAA
.306
.373
.550
111
13
1
4
13
31
0
2
2008 R
.286
.333
.429
28
1
0
1
2
3
0
0

Paulino looked promising early in his career, after reaching full season ball relatively quickly. After playing only briefly in short season ball, he started 2000 as J.R. House's backup at Hickory, but played so well he eventually shared C/DH duties with House.  Despite a good 2001 season at Lynchburg, the Pirates sent him back there for 2002.  He was a Carolina League All-Star in both 2001 and 2002, but seemed to stall offensively.  The Royals selected him in the Rule 5 draft after the 2002 season, but he didn't make their roster and was returned to the Pirates.  He started 2003 in AA, but aside from showing decent power didn't hit well.  A demotion to Lynchburg didn't help; I've seen comments that he played hurt, but don't know whether that's accurate.  Back at Altoona in 2004, he had a breakout season, significantly increasing his power while still hitting for average.  It was a good enough season to get him added to the 40-man roster despite the team's former depth in catchers.  With Ryan Doumit ahead of him, Paulino started 2005 back in AA, then moved up to AAA to replace Doumit.  He got hot there, hitting in the mid-.300s for much of the season, with very good power, until he tailed off some at the end.

Paulino started 2006 back at Indianapolis, but got called up when Doumit got hurt in mid-April and easily took the starting job from the struggling Humberto Cota.  The Pirates' young starting pitchers got off to a horrible start in the first few weeks, but started turning things around about when Paulino arrived.  The staff's improvement spurred a lot of talk about catcher's ERA (CERA) and the Pirates credited Paulino for the turnaround.  This is nonsense.  The staff's ERA improved from 5.30 in April to 3.89 in May partly due to increased experience and partly due to the normal ups and downs of a season, which continued after that month.  If Paulino was the reason for the nice showing in May, then he must also have been at fault for the staff's 5.60 ERA in June.  Or, of course, CERA could just be bunk.  Zach Duke and Paul Maholm both pitched far better in 2005 with Doumit and Cota catching them, but that seemed to escape many people's notice, too.

In any event, Paulino's defense was spotty. He throws well, catching 31% of base stealers for his career.  His throwing tends to be scattershot, accounting for his total of 11 errors in 2006, tied for the second-most in the majors.  Paulino also was among the leaders in passed balls.  For a rookie none of this was unusual, but he also was absolutely awful at blocking pitches.  Often he did little more than stab at outside pitches with his glove.

Offensively, Paulino had an impressive season, adapting almost immediately to major league pitching and posting one of the highest averages for a rookie catcher in many years.  He didn't draw a lot of walks, but he drew enough to post a very good OBP, and his K total was reasonable.  What was lacking was power.  At one point it looked like he'd start hitting for more, as he belted three HRs in one series in Chicago, but he proceeded to get just one extra base hit over the next five weeks.  He has a slow bat, so it may not be realistic to expect him to hit for the power he did in the minors.

In 2007, everything fell apart.  After a big spring that had the Pirates expecting a breakout season, Paulino went into a deep slump, hitting below the Mendoza line until late April and 216/265/337 through mid-June.  He came around in the second half, batting 296/353/437 after the All-Star break.  He continued to struggle badly with RHPs, though, as he hit 218/267/327 against them for the season, compared to 407/462/593 against LHPs.  His problems may have been the result of him developing the habit of bailing out away from the plate on every swing.  The habit was so severe that he had trouble reaching any pitch over the outer half of the plate.  This would naturally make him extremely vulnerable to breaking balls from RHPs.  I don't remember Paulino stepping so badly in the bucket prior to 2007.  He had only a mild platoon split in 2006, hitting 339/402/443 against LHPs and 300/346/376 against RHPs, so his extreme split in 2007 convinces me all the more that his swing changed.  Former hitting coach Jeff Manto maintained that there was nothing wrong with Paulino's swing, that he was just swinging at the wrong pitches, but the platoon splits make this view seem dubious.  Of course, Manto is now no longer a major league hitting coach.

More disturbing was Paulino's defense, which went from poor to awful.  He had trouble blocking pitches and handling throws to the plate, and in the second half teams ran wild on him as his throwing suddenly went south.  His overall CS % declined to 27% after being closer to 40% in the first half of the season.  Much of the time he looked like he wasn't trying, which led to constant booing at home.  Unable to deny any longer that Paulino was playing poorly on defense, Jim Tracy fell back on the claim that he had to stay in the lineup due to his pitch-calling abilities.  Leaving aside studies showing that catchers have no identifiable effect on pitchers' performance, the staff ERA under Paulino was 4.61, which would have ranked 11th in the NL, so it's hard to see that he did much good.  The staff ERA was much higher, and the team's record much worse, with anybody else catching, but the sample sizes were very small and Paulino caught a disproportionate percentage of the games in which the Pirates had their better pitchers on the mound.  Tracy did start using Doumit more often behind the plate as the season's first half progressed, but that stopped when Doumit missed much of the second half.

With the stunningly incompetent Tracy gone, Paulino opened 2008 in a tandem arrangement with Doumit, but that didn't last long.  Doumit started pounding the ball and Paulino struggled more than ever on both offense and defense.  When Doumit broke his thumb, Paulino resumed the starting job but eventually lost playing time to Raul Chavez.  When Doumit returned, the Pirates sent Paulino to AAA to get more playing time in the hopes that he'd get straightened out.  Paulino had five hits, including two homers, in his first AAA game, but shortly afterward went out with an ankle sprain.  He didn't return until August, and didn't hit well when he did:  his OPS was 1.414 in ten June games and .659 in twenty August games.  The Pirates recalled Paulino in September, as they continue to maintain that he's in their future plans.  He played little, however, starting only one game and getting just eight ABs.  The acquisition of Robinzon Diaz probably says more about his future, although Diaz also played little in September.  Most of the starts when Doumit didn't play went to Raul Chavez, the only one of the Pirates' four catchers who's very unlikely to return in 2009.  With Doumit posing a permanent injury risk, the Pirates need a backup catcher who at least has the potential to be a decent hitter, rather than a standard, good-field no-hit type like Chavez.  Paulino is out of options, however, so they won't be able to send him to AAA.  They may try to trade him.

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